Alborada

Following the trend of digital cumbia, South America's electronic underground music has gone spiritual, adding chants from Ayahuasca rituals and instruments and dialects from the Andes, as the movement brought an indigenous identity into the continent's clubs. This is the point at which Argentinian musician Luis Maurette came in. With his group Lulacruza and now on his solo debut as Uji, he has dared to do things differently. Whereas for some, the exploration of a ‘native’ sound has meant pushing electronic elements further aside for something more organic, Uji propels Alborada forward with bold beats and shimmering synths that echo those heady days when big beat pioneers like Chemical Brothers troubled the pop charts.

On tracks like ‘Maloka’ and ‘Camino de Nacar’ he's able to cast resonant, hypnotic spells imbued with humanity, revealing a meticulousness and clear spirituality at the core of his work. At times, the mood heads towards the raucous, evidenced by the horns that break out of his remix of Corina Lawrence's ‘La Descarriá’, or the emotive rapped verses of ‘Familia’. These offer a respite from the disquieting swirls of deep emotion that can be crafted out of processed sounds when they're in the right hands.